Celebrating 25 Years

Lore Harp McGovern and the late Patrick J. McGovern '59 establish the McGovern Institute in 2000 with the ultimate goal of understanding the brain in health and disease.

Emilio Bizzi, Nancy Kanwisher, Martha Constantine-Paton, Tomaso Poggio, Ann Graybiel, and Robert Horvitz make up the original six faculty members of the McGovern Institute.

In 2000, Nature Neuroscience publishes a review paper on models of object recognition by McGovern Institute founding member Tomaso Poggio. Computer vision is now an area of research pursued by multiple McGovern labs.

In 2004, Robert Desimone succeeds founding director Phillip A. Sharp as director of the McGovern Institute and leads the institute for the next two decades..

Hugh Herr advances amputation surgery by developing a technique that preserves sensation and helps amputees better control their prosthetic limbs.

Ed Boyden invents a technique that expands brain tissue, allowing researchers to see tiny structures with nanoscale resolution on standard microscopes.

Feng Zhang revolutionizes the field of biotechnology by leveraging CRISPR into a customizable toolbox for genomic manipulation in eukaryotic (animal and plant) cells.

Polina Anikeeva develops flexible fibers with genetic, chemical, optical, and electrical capabilities to probe the complex connections between the brain and gut.

Alan Jasanoff invents molecular MRI sensors that monitor individual neurons and reveal how they interact. The new technology could help researchers map brain circuits with unprecedented precision.

Michale Fee miniaturizes recording equipment used to monitor neural activity in songbirds, allowing more neurons to be recorded in naturally behaving small animals.

McGovern researchers collaborate with clinicians develop a smaller MRI coil tailored specifically for children, allowing researchers to peer into the brains of children as young as one week of age.

Robert Horvitz wins the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work studying cell death in the roundworm C. elegans. His discovery is central to a wide variety of human diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.

Mark Harnett finds that human neurons have a much smaller number of ion channels than the neurons of other mammals – a discovery that may help to explain the remarkable efficiency of the human brain.

By discovering regions of the brain that are devoted to specific tasks like recognizing faces, places, and body parts, Nancy Kanswisher’s work reveals fundamental truths about the human mind and intelligence.

Ann Graybiel shows that the brain circuits that influence our decisions, cognitive functions, and actions are connected with the circuits that give rise to our motivations - a discovery that may play a role in treating conditions like depression and addiction.

By investigating the neural circuits that underlie placebos’ ability to elicit pain relief, Fan Wang’s discoveries have the potential to improve pain management in the future.

By studying how primates mentally measure time, Mehrdad Jazayeri discovers that the brain runs an internal clock whose speed is set by prior experience—indicating that for the brain, time is relative.

James DiCarlo builds and tests artificial models of the human visual system, and his research is guiding the development of human-like AI vision systems.

Computational discoveries from Josh McDermott’s lab explain how people hear and process sounds. His research is paving the way for more human-like AI auditory systems.

By combining imaging data with behavioral studies and computational models, Evelina Fedorenko shows that language is primarily a tool for communication, not for thought.

Cognitive scientist Rebecca Saxe designs a computational model that predicts other people’s emotions — including joy, gratitude, confusion, regret, and embarrassment — approximating human observers’ social intelligence.

Ila Fiete demonstrates that “self-supervised” computational models, which learn about their environment from unlabeled data, show activity patterns similar to the mammalian brain.

Nidhi Seethapathi builds computational models to understand how humans move. Her findings will inform the way doctors help patients regain control over their movements after injury or stroke.

Just 11 years after Feng Zhang's breakthrough work adapting CRISPR-Cas9 for genome editing in eukaryotic cells, the FDA approved Casgevy, the world’s first CRISPR gene therapy for sickle cell disease.

A new surgical procedure developed in the Herr lab gives seven patients more neural feedback from their residual limb, allowing them to walk naturally and navigate obstacles.

By studying a protein found in synapses, Guoping Feng establishes the groundwork for a new gene therapy to treat a severe form of autism spectrum disorder.

John Gabrieli shows that children who use a mindfulness app show improvements in several aspects of mental health, including reductions in stress and negative emotions such as loneliness and fear.

Ed Boyden develops an imaging method based on expansion microscopy that could eventually be deployed to diagnose tumors, generate more accurate prognoses, and help doctors choose treatments.

By studying how the brain intuits what someone else is thinking, Rebecca Saxe devises possible solutions to seemingly intractable political and social conflicts.